Different
by rebeldesigns
Summary: He always knew she was different. It was just a question of why she was and by how much. Stefan reflects on when, exactly, he became Bonnie Bennett's guardian angel.


**Disclaimer:** No owno _Vampire Diaries_, lo siento.

**Author's Note:** -shrugs- I dunno, does it make me a terrible person if my OTP is Damon/Bonnie, but I kinda sorta ship Stefan/Bonnie as well? At least in friendship-slash-admirational theory?

Don't get me wrong, I'm as diehard as the next Stelena fan. But there's something about Stefan and Bonnie that just seems… interesting, judging from their onscreen interactions. I'd love to see it explored but I know I'll be sent to the ninth circle of fandom hell if I vocalized my opinion. With Damon/Bonnie, it is utter sexiness. It's just pure hotness. And me wanty, lots and lots me wanty. But with Stefan/Bonnie, I could see something actually _working_ between the two of them. He's not as hardheaded as Damon and Bonnie are, for one, so he'd be able to balance her out. Plus he's calm and somber and needs to get out of the self-destructive _pauvre-moi_ cycle that he's been in for most of the series so far. Bonnie could definitely lighten him up.

Plus, it totally leaves room open for my OT3 of _The Vampire Diaries_, Damon/Bonnie/Stefan. I'm a total deviant, I know. Don't judge.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

**DIFFERENT**

He always knew she was different.

The way she reacted when they first touched, the feather-light brush of her warm fingers on his skin. The way her eyes widened and her pupils dilated, the alarm spreading across her face like a flower in reverse-bloom: all her emotions and warmth seeping back into the recesses of her body, replaced with shock and (_he ignores the sting of it, he should be used to it by now_) more than a little fear.

He always knew she was different.

The way she saw things she shouldn't know, couldn't _possibly _know. The way she saw Mr. Tanner's death days before it happened (_she told him about the visions, later_), the numbers and the images and the nightmares filled with shapes and shadows of an anonymous evil, an evil that _he_ knows all too well (_it's been following him like a pestilence for oh, only the past century or so_)…

She wanted to help him, with Elena and with life in general. It surprised him, humbled him, the ease with which he could discuss his feelings for Elena with her. Perhaps it was her sympathetic ear, or her sweet, heart-shaped face, or maybe her eyes, those eyes that suspected far more than they let on; for one thing, she didn't judge his long lapses into silence or his habitual disregard for promises, something he never really verbalized his appreciation for. But he viewed her as a somewhat-friend, a confidante of sorts, all the same. _Before_, anyway. When he was still _human_ (_pretense meets twisted irony_) and she was not a _witch_ (_because who believes in those anymore?_).

They both know that those are two roles they can never pretend to play around each other anymore. They _aren't_ human. They have something in common now, something besides their undying devotion to Elena and their varying degrees of hatred towards Damon (_they say hatred is just an extreme form of love, but that's another story altogether_). They share something that others cannot possibly understand.

Especially after what happened in the woods with Damon and Emily and the amulet.

He always knew she was different.

The fact that she was a descendant of Emily's was a clue, but the major tip-off was when he caught the tail end of her (_well, Emily's_) argument with Damon. The sight of his brother being thrown like a rag-doll and being impaled on the pine tree was his wake-up call: Emily may have been pissed, but that psychic whiplash was all Bonnie, and no one else.

She was more powerful than she knew.

And when she lay there on the ground, bleeding from the neck and eyes closed peacefully as Damon wiped her blood from his lips, something in him panicked. He cared enough about her by that point that losing her would be… unforgiveable. So he let her drink his blood, ignoring the fact that he was already weak from intermittent feeding.

She healed, but she never forgot what he did. What he now had the capacity _to do._

So today when he catches her eye on the way from physics to economics, she bows her head and allows her long tresses to sweep across her field of vision, obscuring her from him and him from her. But he manages to catch a glimmer of something in those cat eyes of hers, a mixture of distilled trepidation and something else akin to thanks.

He gives her a small nod when it becomes apparent that they will pass by too closely to ignore one another outright. She attempts a smile in response, looking pained and obviously uncomfortable. He appreciates the effort (_she's trying_). It's a start.

He's not as powerful a telepath as his brother, but he catches the tail ends of her thoughts as she sends them his way. Apparently she's had a few witchy tricks up her sleeve ever since Emily used her body as a puppet (_besides the fact that her learning curve is practically vertical_). Her words trail across his thoughts, fluttering lightly like a spider web in the breeze.

_Than– __**Stefan**__. Oh _god_. V-__**vampire.**_

_**Thank you.**__ Vampire._

_**You.**__ Ste-fan._

It's static-y, like a radio caught in between stations and picking up both. Her thoughts are jumbled, but Stefan gets the gist of both channels and, as they pass, he lightly sweeps a cool finger across her wrist and sends her a thought of his own (_it's easier for him when there's physical contact_).

_You're welcome, Bonnie._

She shies away from his touch, though mostly out of surprise and not fear. Tossing him a look over her shoulder, a look that promises there will be a next time, she quickly disappears into the sea of backpacked shoulders and acne-ridden faces.

He looks after her a moment before turning on his heel, heading to econ and to Elena.

Bonnie's gratitude is like rain, giving life to his otherwise somber countenance. Just the promise of their friendship resuming has a smile tentatively rounding the corners of his mouth, making his features softer, something which Elena comments on as he brushes her lips with a tender kiss and settles down in a second-row seat for note-taking on population growth effects on a country's capital.

Somehow, that fateful night in the woods made it is so that Stefan's job is to stand between his brother and Bonnie. He wants to protect her not just because she's Elena's friend, or because he feels responsible for her close brush with death.

He protects her because she's different.

Because, in a way, she's just like him.


End file.
